Vertical Datums: An Overview & Planned Updates

July 15, 2021  |  2:00-3:00 pm, ET

Presenters: Jacob Heck, Laura Rear McLaughlin, Terese Herron, Michael Michalski

Vertical datums provide reference for determining elevations. In the next few years, NGS, CO-OPS, and partner agencies in Canada, are updating three vertical datums: 

• the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88), 
• the geodetic vertical datum that will be replaced by the North American-Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022); 
• the International Great Lakes Datum (IGLD) used to reference water levels in the Great Lakes and connecting channels; and 
• the National Tidal Datum Epoch (NTDE) used to reference water levels along the U.S. Ocean Coastline.

This webinar gives an overview of these datums and the changes that are coming.